DayZ starter guide.

Hey! I've been playing DayZ, both mod and Standalone for around 6-8 months and at first, I really struggled to get into the game because I didn't know what to do and I kept getting killed by fully kitted out d*cks who kill new people for fun, which I'm sure you've come across. So, now that I have gotten out the struggle, I've gotten a little group and I'm fully kitted out, I've decided to make a guide to help my fellow players get out of that struggle too.

In this guide, I'm going to cover:

• Starting out
  
• Looting
  
• Different groups and players
  
• Zombies
  
• How to approach other players
  
• and all future updates

If there is anything that I've missed off, then just let me know and I'll work on it. I'll keep adding to this guide as much as I can. *Please note that this guide is a work in progress. Don't forget to favourite it and rate it. Thanks.*

Spawning
When you spawn, you're going to spawn on the coast, right on the beach and 99%of the time, in the area I've highlighted below.

When you spawn, I cannot stress this enough, GET OFF THE COAST. If you stay on the coast, you're going to have a bad time. If you spawn in Solnichniy, which there is a very high chance that you will so I'll just cover Solnichniy for now, I've made some choices for you. Arrows in red are your first choice in direction. Blue are your second and yellow third.
If you take the Dolina route, you can follow the picture below which is Route 1. That'll lead to a military base which has plenty of great loot but take caution as it could have fellow players there that might not be so friendly. Loot along the route too.














If you've taken the route to Orlovets then follow the picture to the right. It will lead you to an airfield, which just like the military base, could be occupied with fellow players but it's great for loot. Loot along this route too.

The main items that you want to look for in the early stages are:

• Food (Obviously)
  
• Drink
  
• Something to defend yourself with

Those are the 3 main things you want to look for. You could then go on to look for a bag. The one thing that I'd say isn't that important and is more of a treat is a firearm. Guns are pretty easy to find along the routes I've shown so great if you've found one but do not risk your life for one. You don't really need one just yet. They're just too risky because they're loud and need ammo. Just focus on getting food and drink.

So, the main things I've tried to cover in getting started are:

• Your first moves
  
• Safe routes
  
• Priority loot

So, if you're following the routes that I've shown you, you're going to find loot but only in certain buildings as loot doesn't spawn in every single building you see so I'm going to try and save you a bit of time and list some that do, and that I find, have the best loot. In most towns, the most common and best buildings for loot for me are:

• Medical House - These are great for loot as they'll always medical kits in. They also spawn food, bags and weapons so they're valuable to loot. See picture (1)
  
  
• Corner pub - This is a great building for loot. It spawns everything so make sure you check everywhere. Check and check again! See picture (2)
  
  
• Appartment row - This is a great building to loot. It's just a row of buildings which all spawn everything. Food, drink, clothes, weapons etc you name it, it can spawn in here. Also, the rooms with blue doors have multiple levels which will have loot all the way to the top. See picture (3)
  
  
• Piano house - Probably the best building for loot in towns. Spawns melee weapons on the piano and guns on the shelving unit oppostite. It also spawns great food such as rice upstairs so make sure you check up there! See picture (4)
  
  
• Factory - Looks similar to the Piano house but longer. It spawns ammo and sometimes a gun upstairs. See picture (5)
  
  
• Shop - This spawns food and melee weapons. Just a nice little building to loot. See picture (6)
  
  
• Police Stations - These are amazing. Probably my favorite building to loot. They have guns, food and clothes in so be sure to check these. (No image available just yet)
  
  
  There are other buildins which I will add to this list eventually but those are the main ones. All the pictures were taken in Berizino which is a great city for loot. Just take care as it may have other players there.

So, now you're looking through buildings and looking for loot so you can survive, I'll try to explain the different kinds of loot and where you can find them.

Bags
There are 6 different bags in the game. The bags are:

• Child briefcase - 12 slots
  
• Improvised courier bag - This is a craftable item. To make it, combine a Burlap sack with rope. 12 slots
  
• Improvised backpack - This is an improved courier bag. To get it, just make the courier bag and add sticks. 20 slots
  
• Taloon backpack - 25 slots
  
• Hunting backpack - My personal favorite. Even though it has 5 less slots than the moutain backpack, it's better for camo and keeping yourself hidden. The mountain backpack tends to be vibrant colors, like the Taloon backpack and it makes you easily noticable. 30 slots
  
• Mountain backpack - Like I said above, these are great for storage but they just make you a walking glow stick. Trust me, if you get a Hunting backpack, keep it. 35 slots

Melee Weapons
There are 10 melee weapons so far but I've only listed the most common. The others are super rare or inusable.

• Baseball bat - This has very minimal damage. It takes 7 hits to kill a zombie (a blow to head will kill instantly)
  
• Crowbar - This does a little more damge than the baseball bat but still takes 5 hits to kill a zombie
  
• Firefighter axe - These badboys are my favorite weapon. They deal massive ammounts of damage and can kill zombies and players in one hit. They can also be used to open tinned food but not recommended as you'll lose a lot of it.
  
• Pitchfork - I've not used one of these yet and the wiki doesn't have any information about it yet but my friend had one and it killed zombies in one hit. Only problem is he was running around looking like an angry farmer. Stick to an axe.
  
• Shovel - Like the pitchfork, I've never used it although it's said to be weak.
  
• Splitting axe - This is just like the firefighter axe minus a bit of it's power. It takes 2 hits to kill a zombie with one of these.

Firearms
There are 3 types of firearms in the game so far. Those are Handguns, Shotguns and Rifles. So I'll start with handguns and work my way down. The different type of hand guns are:

• M1911 - This is .45 chamber gun and has a 7 round magazine and it does the same amount of damage as it's brother, the FNX45. Difference being, the FNX has a 14 round clip which makes it more desirable than the 1911.
  
• Amphibia S - This is a .22 chamber gun and has a 10 round capacity. I've never even seen one of these but apparently the damage on them is weak but it has a built in suppresor which means it's perfect for stealth. If you're a sniper in your little group, one of these might be desirable.
  
• CR75 - Just like the Amphibia, I've never seen one of these in game and I've done around 10 laps of the map with my current guy. This is a .9mm pistol and has a 15 round magazine. I don't know much about it as I've never found one but with its 15 round magazine, it sounds pretty good. Only problem is that the 9mm ammo is hard to come by.
  
• FNX45 - This is my favorite pistol in the game. It's .45 chamber and has a 14 round magazine. It's got next to no recoil, 2 shots is a kill and is deadly accurate. I love this pistol. Only problem is, it can be a bit loud so use with caution
  
• Magnum - Now. This gun right here is like the godfather of handguns. It's loud, it's powerful and my god it hurts. But let me repeat that, it's loud. That could do 2 things, grab peoples attention or demoralize them. It's a .357 revolver with 6 rounds. It has high recoil but lots of damage. You could use one of these at your own risk as they do hurt but one shot and everyone in the surrounding area is going to hear it.

So now I've covered Handguns, I'll move on to Shotguns which just before I do, I'll let you in on a little secret. If you use a hacksaw to make a sawn off, you can put it in your bag and on your hotbar. So a shotgun could become your secondary. But anyhow, moving on. The different kinds of Shotguns are:

• IZH-43 - This and it's sawn off version are the only shotgun in the game at this moment in time. There is talk of a Remington 870 being brought in. The IZH is a double barreled, 12 gauge shotgun with a good amount of damage. I personally don't like shotguns as they're a spray and pray weapon.

So now I've covered the massive amount of shotguns, time to move on to Rifles. There are 5 rifles in the game and I've had every single on of them on my current character before settling down with a Mosin, long range scope and bipod. The different rifles are:

• Blaze 95 double rifle - These are fairly common and are fun to play with. They're the most accurate rifle in the game right now as you can shoot someone at 400m with ease. They're also great for close quarters as they can also act as a shotgun. Press T and the gun will fire both barrels at the same time with high damage.. ouch. These take the 7.62x51mm rounds and have a 2 shot chamber.
  
• M4A1 - The M4 is probably one of the most common rifles you'll find on anybody, but if you see a guy with one of these, don't be afraid as it's highly inaccurate. He'll be spraying and praying. I personally don't like this gun but I have friends who I play with that love it. It takes 5.56mm rounds and has lots of different magazines. There are 10/20/30/40 round CMAG magazines and the 30 round STAGNAG magazine which you can couple. There are also lots of attachments you can find for this but I'm not going to cover them just yet.

So I ran out of room on the other looting section which I didn't know could happen so I'll just continue the rifle section here. So, Rifles:

• Mosin 9130 - I love this beautiful rifle. It's powerful, it's accurate and with the long range scope attachment, I can see well over 1000m. It takes 7.62x51mm rounds and has a 1 shot chamber. It's quite a rare rifle so if you find one, I'd keep it.
  That right there is me with my mosin and a shot of my inventory so you can see the attachments.
  
• SKS - The SKS is a great alternative if you can't find a mosin or M4. It's got a 10 round mag and takes 7.62x39mm rounds.
  
• Sporter 22 - This is a .22 chamber rifle and just like the Amphibia handgun, it's damage output is low but it's next to silent and has no recoil.

So, that's all the firearms in the game but more are being added soon so expect this to be updated. I'll try and cover usefull loot now.

Usefull Loot
In the game, you're going to find tons and tons of loot and not have enough room for all of it. So I'll help tell you what you should make a priority.

• Food - This should be pretty obvious. When you spawn on the coast, your character is hungry and thirsty. You should make food and drink a priority. Now, there are 3 types of food that you could find; Canned food, Dry food (rice, powdered milk, cereal) or fruit. Canned food is awesome as it replenishes your hunger and even thirst, Dry food like Rice is awesome as you get 10 eats out of it, only problem being is that you get very dehydrated. Fruit is pretty much pointless at the moment as it does nothing but make you ill. KILLER KIWI'S!
  
• Drink - This again should be pretty obvious as without water, you're going to get dehydrated and, you guessed it, die! When you first spawn, you'll probably find soda's. These are okay but in reality, you should head to a water pump, get yourself fully hydrated (light green bar should appear next to your character labeled "hydrated") and keep your eye out for a water bottle or canteen. (NEVER drink the water that spawns in the bottle as it's most likely going to be dirty and make you ill and, thats right, kill you!) It's good to hang on to a few sodas in case you want to be a hero or help a friend out but otherwise, they take up valuable space.
  
• Protection - Usually Trojan or Durex are the most popular choice... Kidding, I'm talking about something you can clobber someone over the head with or shoot down a herd of zombies. Anything in DayZ can be used as a weapon in some way. From pitchforks to can openers to a deadly axe. Anything can save your life. Use the weapon list above to prioritise weapons.
  
• Clothes - Now, clothes don't just give you some extra item slots, they can also act as armour and quite possibly save your life. When you spawn, you'll spawn with a T-Shirt and some jeans. This is just me but what I like to do is take my starting shirt off and tear it into rags as you've most likely going to get hit by a Zombie at some point and start gushing blood. Rags will save your life. As always, the best gear spawns in the army bases or at an airfield but, is army gear the best? in can be argued. If you're going to be a bandit or want to take this game seriously and move around in a unit, then by all means, go for army gear. But if you're wanting to be a hero and help people, army gear can be quite scary for bambis. I'd take something like a chequered shirt and jeans if you're choosing the hero role.
  
• Navigation - Knowing where you are in DayZ is a massive importance. If you don't know where you are, you're most likely going to end up running around the wilderness and eventually dying of starvation. So I'd suggest finding a compass as they help, a lot. I would also suggest that you use the DayZDB map on google rather than the in game map. Just find a town, look for the towns name on the map and ta-da! you've got your position.

How to loot
Now, you're probably thinking "well duh! looting is easy!" and you're right for the most part but there's things that you're going miss. If you're new to the game, like when I was, I didn't know that you could see hidden loot by pressing the "tab" key and looking in the vicinity section. There, all hidden loot around you will show. Now, When you enter a building like a medical building for example or a school, there is going to be lots of little loot lying around like rounds for a pistol or a magazine that to the naked eye, you're going to miss if you're not looking well enough. Make sure to check every room and then check them again. Trust me, one piece of loot could honestly save your life. I mean it.

So, to the left is a map of the three airfields and the single military base in the game. I'll talk about what to expect in each one and give each one a "risk rating" on a scale 1-10, 10 being the most risky.
North East Airfield
I've done this one first as this is the one that most people spawn near. Straight away, I'm going to give this one a risk rating of 9/10. It's incredibly risky going here, even if you're kitted out. Everytime I've gone there, I've almost been killed. Almost being the key word as I'm great at getting myself out of sour situations but you might not be so lucky.

If you choose to go here, then you can expect one headquarter building and a control tower with a few hangers. Like I said above, it's usually always got somebody here and the loot isn't great either. If you were going to head here, do it on a low pop server.

Military Base
Military base is great for loot as it has 3 barracks and a headquarter building. I love going to this one when I first spawn as I'll gain a weapon almost everytime I go here. I'll give this one a 5/10 on the risk rating as I've never actually bumped into anyone whilst there but it's surrounded by a lot of fields therefore, you've got to run straight out into the open to get there. If someone has beat you to it and is sat on the hill just outside of the base, you're most likely goign to be spotted. Just take caution and you should be fine around here.

North West Airfield
This one right here gets a straight 10/10 on the risk rating. It's always populated and because it's so huge and has literally a million places a sniper can hide, it's just a plain nightmare looting this place. I've done a little extra at the bottom to explain how to approach this place.

You're going to expect a lot of stuff here, I can't remember it all but I'll list it all in the extra section at the bottom of this.

Balota Airfield
I've never been here but I'm going to give this a 10/10 as well as it's right next to Cherno and it's on the coast. Every new spawn around there is just going to run here in the hope of awesome loot. Just stay away from here.

How to approach the Northwest Airfield
Basically, follow that blue line and you should be alright. The red circles are hot spots for snipers to hide. I'll go through it in detail, Basically, head in from the North West and check sniper spot 1 which is a hill at the end of the runways. Then, head up to sniper spot 2 which is a little bit of forrestry, Look where you tread and head up behind the hangers. Now, when you get up to or close to sniper spot 3, this is a firestation and a control tower which always have snipers in. Spots 4,5,6 and 7 are tree lines so just look across every now and then for movement. I've ran out of letters :( damn you limited space!

Players
DayZ is massively multi-player and massively pvp (player vs player). You've got two choices when it comes to other players, Go solo and completely avoid them or try to make friends. If you choose to go solo then that's up to you but personally, I would't advise it. You're going to be all alone which makes looting dangerous, Zombies dangerous, Eating and drinking dangerous and makes the whole game about a million times more difficult, however, if you make friends and join a group (I'll talk about the different types of group further down) you're always going to have someone watching your back and it makes looting high risk areas a million times easier.

Making friends
So, you've decided you're going to approach other players and try to team up with them but you just don't know quite how to do it. Well personally I'd try to assess them as much as you can. Look at there gear, behaviour and attitude. If they're fully kitted out and you're a fresh spawn, there's a high chance that they're not going to be interested and ignore you. If they're kinda kitted out, then it all depends on the person, they might help you or they'll leave you for dead. Now, surprisingly the most dangerous players I find are new spawns/bambis. They'll want anything you have so they'll kill you first chance they get, If they're new to the game, there's also a high chance that they'll kill you for the buzz. I recently got killed by a fresh spawn as I was helping someone out. He'd been shot so I was bandaging him up and a new spawn with a baseball bat comes running in the room like a maniac, hits me across the head and boom, I'm dead. So be careful approaching players no matter what they have or how geared out they are.

Groups
So in the game, there are 4 kinds of players. Heroes, Bandits, Casual and New.

Heroes
Heroes save people from bandits or help new people get started. Heroes are rare to come across and being a hero is a hard roll. If you get attached to a character easily then the role of a hero isn't for you as you'll most likely die a lot as it tends to involve roaming the coast.

Bandits
Now, you can probably guess that these guys are the bad guys of the game. If they find you, they'll kill you and not in a nice why either. They'll handcuff you, get you naked and force feed you bleach. They also kill new spawns for fun. Yeah being a bandit is fun but c'mon, your karma is going to plummet. I like having bandits around though, keeps me and my group busy ;)

Casual
Casual is just your average joe playing after school or work and they don't really give a damn about the game, they just play for fun. They're still a threat though as they won't take into consideration how hard or long you've played to get that fully kitted out Mosin with a pristine 'long range scope. They'll shoot you in the face and take it.

New
New players just want what you have. That's why I hate the coast. Sometimes though, it's good to boost your karma and throw some loot their way. Just don't give them weapons.

Now, in the game you're going to come across clans or groups that'll work together to get the best loot. That's why airfields or military bases are dangerous as they're usually patrolled by groups of players, Usually an army of bandits just waiting for loot to respawn and they'll snag it up. Now, they're are also groups out there that try to keep bandits away from the high loot areas like my group, TBK (The Bandit Killers) We patrol the airbases to protect others from bandits but it doesn't mean we won't shoot you. If you act suspicious , we'll kill you. Much like the army. They're there to protect but if you pull a gun on them, they're going to take you down.

This is why it's good to join a group if you're playing this game. Because you'll be able to learn new stuff, get the best loot and take a role.

Zombies
Now, Zombies are the most frustrating thing in this game. Yes I know it's a game based in a zombie apocalypse but zombies are bugged at this moment in time. They do ton's of damage, have a stupidly big line of sight and are fast as hell. You can out run them in speed but they'll chase you for miles so if you're a fresh spawn, sneak past all you can and if they spot you, just run.

The spawning system for them is also really stupid at the moment, because if you kill one then all the zombies that spawn in the surrounding area will know exactly where you are and don't think that hiding in a house will help, they'll run through the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ walls. Think of the zombies in this game like the ones in The Walking Dead. One is easy to deal with but a group of them becomes a massive problem, even if you're kitted out, I'd just run.

When you approach other players in game, there are a number of ways to do so. Depending on which you take, could earn you a friend or foe.

Friendly
When you come across another player, You could approach with a sense of friendliness and press F1 (wave) or even F2 which will bring both your hands up in a surrender like possiton, this'll show them you're not going to shoot but it's also risky as hell. You could try and communicate in game by hitting "/" or "caps" if you've got a mic and say something like "Hey, I'm friendly" or "Hey, I'm not going to shoot"

When you're being friendly, you've still got to act with caution as if you're kitted out and they're not, they'll most likely want everything you have and come Rocky punch you in the face and knock you the f*ck out. If I come across a player in a town, I'll skip looting that town and move on to the next one as they'll probably follow you.

Hostile
If you're a paranoid player and don't want to risk the many hours you've put into the game to earn that pristin kiwi, then you'll probably act hostile when you see a player. That means you'll shoot them without even thinking about it.

Now, that's all good and well but let's think about this for a second, They've probably put an equal amount of time into there guy as you've put into yours. So why should you kill them without any reason? If you really feel threatened then just turn the other way and let them pass. Yes, there are going to be bandits in the game but they'll be in groups and usually stick to airfields or military bases, that's why you should stay away from there.

Groups
Now, a couple of people have mentioned how hard it is to get into a group and I'll agree, it can be a challenge. When you first spawn, you're going to come across a lot of players, mainly hostile. That's because they're probably scared as ♥♥♥♥.

This is why you should get off the coast and head inland, all knowlegable players will head inland. If you come across another player, just act friendly and if they act hostile, then you should shoot. There are plenty of forums that you can join to get into a group, for example: http://forums.dayzgame.com/

I'd like to say thank you for reading my guide, it means a heck of a lot! If you could rate it, follow it and comment, that'd be amazing as every little helps! I'll keep adding to it as the updates flow so keep your eyes peeled!

Now, I've got a You Tube channel which I'll be uploading game play to, and I'll also be uploading DayZ gameplay which could help you even furthur. If you could, head over there and check it out and make a subsription! :D Now for your laughing material, I've included a video of my first ever time playing DayZ Standalone. Enjoy! Ihttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTA4CF52I0ztewZ97RPv6ig

I've also started writing a fan fiction novel about DayZ, check it out! http://www.wattpad.com/45474751-charnarus-journals-the-beginning